The giving , regretful count of this winter’sNosferatugoes by Orlok , but you know his material name . ( The estate of Bram Stoker sure did back in the 1920s , when they sued F.W. Murnau for copyright misdemeanor . ) And though the title character ofWolf Manisn’t Lawrence Talbot , he herald from the same lycanthropic lineage that had Lon Chaney Jr. howling at the full moonlight . depend on where you go , and if you zip , you’re able to go to the flick the right way now and see both Dracula and the Wolfman on the big screen once again . What a time to be alive or undead !
These two moving picture , both from Universal ( or at least its prowess - house subordinate , Focus Features ) , are merely the start of a Graeco-Roman fiend mash in the making . Later this year , we ’ll get not one but two newfangled adaptation ofFrankenstein — a melodious with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale , and a too-generous Guillermo del Toro adjustment starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi . Meanwhile , James Wan , our reigning top executive of multiplex spookiness , has his center on more icons from the house Dracula built : He ’s said to be directing a reboot ofCreature from the Black Lagoonand producing the latest attempt to crack the sarcophagus of The Mummy .
The Universal Monsters , in other words , are having a import . Not since Pepsi made them the unlikely stars of a1990s advertising military campaign — virtually bend Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff into beyond - the - grave spokesmonsters for Doritos — have the most famous fiends of filmland love such a renaissance of visibility . What this bumper crop of creature- ( andCreature- ) associate projects also represent is a backlash from one of the failed franchise overlord plan of the last decennary . Soft box authority forWolf Manaside , we ’re seeing a resurrection in the qualification . The Dark Universe is dead . Long live the Dark Universe !
If a thousand social media jokes do n’t border a bell , theDark Universewas Universal ’s suddenly - lived plan to give its roster of Golden Age beasties the Avengers discourse via a serial of movies that would reunify them all on screen . This abort , Marvel - biting attempt to build a Modern franchise from honest-to-god intellectual dimension is best remembered today for the prematureness of its splashy roll - out : too confident in the audience ’s hunger to see a clustering of Hollywood monsters hobnob , Universal put the cart before the sawhorse - draw pram and commission a now - ill-famed photoshoot for Tom Cruise , Johnny Depp , Javier Bardem , Sofia Boutella , and Russell Crowe . That publicity still , and the official tweet promoting it , outlived the program by several years .
It was n’t such an out - there thought , though . You could say Universal beat Marvel to the whole “ shared universe ” matter by most a century . In the 1940s , the studio collide its legendary monsters in movies likeFrankenstein Meets the Wolf Man , House of Frankenstein , andHouse of Dracula … before pitting them against Abbott and Costello at the jokey last of that era . Over the decades that follow , Universal would revive this crosswalk playfulness — make the gang back together for theGooniescrowd in 1987’sThe Monster Squad , sending them after Hugh Jackman ’s Van Helsing in the junky 2004 blockbuster that bore his name .
Last ten ’s Dark Universe sputter out for possibly the same reason that a Van Helsing series did : It start on a idler note . Or two , actually . Before Cruise ’s misbegottenThe Mummyput a nail in the casket , the unsparing Luke Evans origin storyDracula Untoldgave the Dark Universe its first false offset . These were forgettable action misdirection that audiences ignored . You ca n’t launch a cinematic population with a flop . You need anIron Man - sized smash to whet appetite for more .
The Dark Universe died before it really got started . But you ca n’t keep a good monster down . From the grave accent of that failure has risen a new seam of vehicles for Universal ’s seasoned fright class . The studio reverberate back rapidly fromThe Mummy(and the line of interlink sequels it promised ) with a shivery standalone : Leigh Whannell ’s sharply suspenseful take onThe Invisible Man , which boot the most canonically scummy of Universal Monsters for a new epoch in a much smarter direction . There ’s no foundation for next entries in that movie , no Nick Fury figure teasing a new world of gods and teras . The Invisible Manconfirmed that audience would plunk down for old - school scares without the promise of a large saga uniting them .
In the year since , Universal has shown no pursuit in trying to play malevolent marriage broker again ( beyond the recent announcement that they ’d be reviving the “ Dark Universe ” brand for a theme park event ) . Instead , the company has experiment with ego - hold in vehicle for its terror troupe . Dracula , in particular , has been busy the last few years . BeforeNosferatuscored a actual hit for the bloodsucker under his German assumed name , Universal rolled out two novel twisting on Stoker ’s novel in the same twelvemonth : a glib natural process - comedy for beleaguered familiarRenfield , and a lineament - length dramatisation of one chapter of the Christian Bible , dearly nicknamedDracula on a Boatby a bunch of keyboard wise guy who did n’t take that voyage .
NeitherDemeternorRenfieldwere successes . Nor was last month’sWolf Man , a disappointing follow - up toThe Invisible Manfrom Whannell . No matter . Universal ( or other studios , like Warner Bros. and Netflix , who are bankrolling those modern take onThe Modern Prometheus , which will open later this year ) can give to muck with the monster stamp and roll the dice a few time when not devoting a Marvel - sized budget to these fearsome attractions . After all , horror need not cost a destiny to draw a crew . Fur , fake fangs , and neck bolt come comparatively gimcrack . And when you ’re not seek to engineer a star topology - stud , multi - entry , record - break enfranchisement , there ’s no bully loss in one film failing . Shake it off and try again .
The Dark Universe ’s miscalculation was thinking that some of cinema ’s oldest baddie needed to be superheroes . That was a straight peg in a orotund hole . There ’s a way to adapt these goliath for a new genesis without turning them into something they ’re not . The Invisible Man , which brought the translucent menace into a novel era of technical school - bro misogynism , conveniently present as much . And in the popularity ofNosferatu , a rather deliberately old - fashioned slab of medieval horror , one can see the durability of the original Universal Monster appeal — a scariness that peradventure never go completely out of fashion , credibly because it transmit deeper fears of end , disease , and lubricity . Nosferatu ’s healthy box office is proof that Dracula can still sell tickets , provide he ’s allowed to be his horny self .
The Count and his Old Hollywood labelmates always total back for another raciness . Pepsi partnership away , they ’re more like the Coca - Cola Classic of revulsion : dependable , unimprovable , and immune to changing taste perception . Hammer , the revere British yield theatre , revived the whole ring in the 1960s — a much more successful Dark Universe , made across the pool from the studio apartment system that made stars out of the fortune . And the early 1990s offered a bumper craw of lavish remakes and reimaginings , directed by big names likeFrancis Ford Coppolaand Kenneth Branagh , and featuring big stars like Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson . Half a one C after their heyday , Dracula , Frankenstein , and the Wolf Man were on the spur of the moment box - office participant again . We ’re delinquent for the cycle to repeat .
But will we ever see the Universal Monsters together again ? Will Frankenstein once more encounter the Wolf Man ? Will Dracula reopen his household to some renowned frenemies from the studio apartment payroll ? Oh , probably — the apportion universe concept is n’t dead , even if the Dark Universe is . In the meantime , it ’s enough to have so many of these body snatcher back in theaters or on their fashion . Hell , come fall , we might even get a chance to do a three-fold feature of duelingFrankensteins , a true Barbenheimer - course consequence for viewers of a sure nervous persuasion . Who demand a Dark Universe when multiple Transylvanian terrors are come to a theater near you ?
